


Always

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Academy Era, Bittersweet, Drabble, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2014-05-07
Packaged: 2018-01-23 23:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1582841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a particular word in the Gallifreyan language that is forbidden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always

There is a particular word in the Gallifreyan language that is forbidden.

It means an eternal conclusion, a happily-ever-after. The best translation, perhaps, is “always.” There are words for temporary pauses and words for the end of the universe, and those words one is free to throw about, to speak in the public halls for everyone to hear. Always is different, always would be blasphemy if Time Lords had such a concept. Everyone knows that the word is perverse: sacrilege to the laws of entropy. Time, space and even people were in constant flux - being written, scratched out and rewritten: pages of what was and what will be ripped from their seams. Secure finalities did not exist, could never exist. Nothing is for always.

That is the word he whispers as he is spooned against the warmth of Theta’s body, his hands able to feel the steady double-drumbeat of hearts, his lips brushing the outermost curve of Theta’s ear: “Always, my love.”

“Always,” Theta echoes him, “It’s a word and a promise. Imagine the scrutiny we’d be under if anyone could hear. They’d tell us it’s wrong, impossible.”

“Someday, Thete,” he pulls in a deep breath, “Someday we’ll run away from here. I’ll be with you in the great vastness of the universe, and I won’t whisper it any more. I will shout it, scream it to all of the stars: ‘Always. Always, that is how long I will love you.’”

“And I will too,” Theta says, “If they want to call us wrong, then let them.”

Koschei wonders if he’s a fool. Perhaps he has spent too much time listening to those fairy stories from off-world that Theta seems to like so much, stories which end in that impossible always that less enlightened species believe in. It’s wrong to say, but Theta says it with him, and that makes two wrongs. He clings with all his mind to the impious hope that in this one particular instance, two wrongs will together make a right.


End file.
